This weekend sees the Autumn part of Isle of Wight Walking Festival. One such walk about Darwin is being lead by Rowan Adams. Ed
In the summer of 1858 Charles Darwin and his family came to stay on the Isle of Wight. They were recovering from the funeral of their youngest baby, the third of the Darwin children to die young.
Darwin had had another shock – he wasn’t the only person to have thought of the survival of the fittest.
The Linnean Society had just heard the first news of the theory of natural selection from Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.
So Darwin planned to write a short article, based on his huge draft book on natural selection, as soon as he got home to Kent. But he started writing on holiday. What he wrote here, in Sandown and Shanklin, became the first chapter of the Origin of Species.
Find out more in a walk as part of this autumn’s Walking Festival.
It takes place between 9am-12.30pm Monday 26 October, meeting outside the Esplanade entrance of The Ocean Hotel, Sandown.
To book a place, ring or leave a message for Rowan Adams on 01983 298098.
Image: Mind on Fire under CC BY-SA 2.0
